I've really enjoyed the Follower system in Skyrim, but there are a few things I would change about it. I figured this would be the place to discuss them. This is not a thread intending to flame Bethesda, just some things I would have done differently.

Commands:

• Place Rune (Mages) - Tell the follower to place a Rune Spell on a surface if they have such a spell.
  
• Warn About Trap - Warn your follower about a trap so they try to avoid it.
  
• Activate Trap - Tell the Follower to activate a specific trap like hitting an oil covered floor with a flame spell or shooting an explosive pot with a bow. Can also set off tripwires by hitting with a ranged attack. Only possible after you warn them of a trap.
  
• Stop Combat - Tells the Follower to immediately stop combat with anything it is fighting. Will not start combat with those targets again for 60 seconds, unless you tell them to or attack them yourself. Good for when your follower runs around after a Slaughterfish, but won't place a toe in the water.
  
• Hide - A variation of the "Wait There" command, but tells them to stay crouched and not attack unless spotted. Only accessible while crouching.
  
• Sneak Attack - Only usable while crouching. Tells your follower to try and hit the enemy for a sneak attack. Will prioritize a ranged attack over melee (including spells for mages, forfeiting the bonus) if they have a ranged weapon.
  
• Combat Styles - The ability to tell a follower to "Stand back and fight with a bow" or "You fight them head on, I'll cover you." and have them actually do that (unless the enemy gets to close or any other logical reason to change combat style, like mentioned below.
  
• Use a Poison/Potion/Heal Spell - Tells them to heal up, or to use a poison on their weapon. If they are above 80% HP, they won't heal. Only usable outside of combat.

Inventory:

• Allow you to take anything from your follower, even their base gear, without having to pickpocket them. The only hitch is they MUST have a chest/leg clothing item, or they will take those items back. Pickpocketing them would result in them not trying to take the gear back.
  
• Favorite Option - Allow you to "Favorite" gear for them. Currently they equip gear based on it's base damage/armor stats, meaning your follower will take a basic Steel Sword over an Iron Sword with upgrades from smithing and an enchantment. Good for keeping them in the right gear when you use them as a pack mule. Also works on Poison/Potions.

Tweaks:

• Rarely will followers use a weapon based on how far an enemy is. More than once I have seen a follower repeatedly forced to yield because it is trying to use a sword to fight a flying dragon. If the enemy is flying, you take out your ranged weapon. It just makes sense.
  
• Multiple Followers - I know you can have one follower and a dog, but I would change it to you can have any two followers, and the dog now counts as a follower.
  
• Set Home Location - If you tell a companion to wait for a while, they may return home. This can be irritating if you don't remember/know where you got them from. Having the option to set a Home Location would be nice. Just use it and they will remember where to go next time they decide to head home.
  
• Go Home - In addition to the above, an option to return home would be nice. I suggest this in addition to the Part Ways dialog because Part Ways is still useful if you want your follower to go back to where you met them in the first place.
  
• Make so an enemy will finish a command given to them, even if you exit command mode.

Bugfixes:

• Power Soul Trap Exploit: I only did this twice (and then I took away their Soul Trap gear because it was an exploit), but in the latest version of the game (PC), if a follower uses a Soul Trap on an Enemy, the entire stack of gems will get filled. Meaning you can get essentially limitless filled gems from one enemy dying.
  
• Sometimes when issuing commands the crosshair will stay on the command mode for a few seconds.

Suggested Additions by Others:

By Hannador:

• More AI Packages to give them: Being able to tell your follower to sleep, sit down and eat, or wander around and relax.
  
• Ability to use or put away a torch on command
  
• A "Companion Wheel" similar to FO:NV

By Re123 :

• Smoother, more attentive following (No more lost followers) [also suggested by others]
  
• Followers sprinting when you sprint

By JagarTharn12:

• Better Follower Leveling, possibly with a custom perk system similar to the Player's

That's it for now, will probably add more later.

Anything anyone would like to add or change to this list?

Would have loved more "sandbox" features, such as (going off Oblivion's AI packages here):

"Why don't you get some rest"; Adds a sleep package to any bed / bedroll within 512 radius
"Are you hungry"; Adds a use Object: Furnature package and Eat package within a 256 radius
"Try to relax"; Adds a wander package within 1024 radius
"Can you hold a torch"; Adds a torch02 / equipitem torch02 script
"Extinguish that torch"; unequipitem torch02

Small things like this.

Also, a Fallout: NV style compaion wheel with extra commands would have been a welcome addition, IMHO.

Agreed on most, especially the companion wheel. But I think you can already tell them to sit in a chair. Also, I assume the Sleep package would be applicable only to unowned beds or beds owned by the player?

You can tell them to sit in a chair, but all they do is stare at you (your companions, that is). But I'd like to see them eat, drink, get up and request the Bard to play a song (etc) while in a tavern for example.

For sleep packages, they currently can use a rented bed as long as you're the sole owner/renter of that bed, but they won't stay in them. I have to use "TAI" in my console for RP purposes, and that gets annoying.

These little wants/needs should be easily moddable, once the CK gets released.

I wish they would follow "smoother" and not make multiple pauses that makes them get lost. Also, if I sprint, they should sprint.

True, many will be added, although I'm not sure how easy it will be to add more commands. The fact that there is an SKSE already shows amazing promise though.

I wish they would actually follow you, if I go in the wilderness from a mainroad, I only see them again when I go back to a road, it's like they're scared of the wilderness.

I'd have them level either using the same system as the character or alongside the character

I can actually explain that bit. Where an NPC walks is dictated by pathfinding nodes. These nodes tell an NPC where it is allowed to walk, and where it can't. The only thing that overrides that are things like combat, fleeing, and in some cases following. When they follow you they try their best to stick to the pathfinding nodes first, which is why if you cross a small field to get to another road they will run around instead of follow you.

Pathfinding nodes take memory, and to blanket the entire world with them would be a very laggy, messy thing.

At JagarTharn12:

According to the wiki they do, but have skill caps: http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Followers#Follower_Stats But the ability to fully customize a follower would be absolutely amazing.

It's true that SKSE will allow us modders more flexibility with our mods... just as OBSE was/is for Oblivion.

One thing that I find curious though: there seems to be some leftover Fallout script commands in the console. If we can tap into those Fallout script commands (if they still work) and combine them with SKSE, we should be able to re-create the F:NV companion wheel.... with bonus features!

Won't know for sure until next month.

Heh, they are fine they way they are. And you can already command them to set off trip wires.

Only thing I want from them is to follow without constantly stopping every time they get within 500 ft of me. They follow way to far behind, then stop if they get anywhere close to you and wait for you to get out of sight before following again.

I agree, they are great. This is just a list of what people would change if they had the option to. And can you command them to actually set off tripwires or just force them to trigger the trap? And do they do it from a distance because I meant for them to do it in a way that doesn't put them in danger.

Them lagging behind you when following is likely just a delay in the game checking the follow packages to see how far away you are. But it is already up on the OP under Smoother following.

Just to add to this... it might be possible build a mod that allows us disarm pressure plates as well. We might be able to command our followers to do it, but without seeing the new(er) scripting language, it's hard to say.

Could be possible. Maybe a script that cut's the plate's ties to the trap, at least until the cell resets?

That's what I was thinking, something like disarming the spring. Calculate it with either your lock picking skills or your companion's? Maybe something with an RNG for success chance, perhaps? Those are some minor features to think about when fiddling with any companion mod.

Right now, I'd like to dig in the meat and potatoes on how the AI works. Their strengths and limitations is what I'm itching to find out because we need see if they're bright, or dumber than a bag of hammers. That alone will determine if it's worth pursuing these kinds of mods, or determine if it's all waste if time.

this is a thread I can back! some real good ideas here Follower AI is so bad I just go solo most of the time.

I like the followers.

I think some people wanna compare them to the kind of followers that you get in other games and forget that this id the first TES game to ever even have real followers. They don't have long scripted quest lines to get to know "them" but even when games like ME do that really well, thats not what ever makes me care about an NPC. If I give a crap about an NPC its from having them along on all of my wacky adventures in TES land. I like that these games are about making your own story. As far as commands, I wouldn't hate it, but if my trusty doofus sidekick occasionally causes me to have to switch thing up on the fly, I can live with that. To me thats more fun then feeling like they're just an extension of me. Plus I like that they gave you more followers to choose from then any comparable game that I can think of. That doesn't mean they work for all characters though.

The only thing I would change is to be able to have two. A trusty sidekick works for a goodish character, but sometimes a real bad one needs a couple minions.

It would be overpowered, but who cares? A guy with minions should be. And it aint nobodies business but my own.

Most of this isn't necessary. Most fights are over quickly without too much trouble, and so long as your follower is contributing at least some damage then fine.

My biggest issue is spellcasting, but that would require far more sophisticated AI. There is at least one follower skilled in Illusion, but I'll be damned if I've ever seen her cast Calm, Frenzy or Fear. Several are skilled in Restoration but they never heal you. Never. Heck, one is skilled in Alchemy. Not like he's making you potions or anything, so it's just a waste.

But again, nice ideas but who cares? See that enemy? Bash it until it's dead. (2 seconds later) Great. Moving on.

I would just remove them entirely , They are a total waste of time imo. I have done nothing but kill them as soon as they jump in front of me every single time. i wont bother with them anymore.

I would like the ability to shout orders at a distance. My Breton mage leans pretty heavily on followers and summons. But now that I am getting area affect spells I am finding I can almost never use them because Lydia always wants to charge in. I lost her once because I threw a rune trap down at a door to catch a bandit charging at me, but Lydia decided that standing on the trap was a good place to be. It killed both her and the bandit, and I reloaded a save to stop her stupidity..;.

I can understand what you're saying, but it's possible to get the NPC followers to do some (if not all) of what you've listed.

Modding and tweeking is a just another hobby of mine, and for others as well. I hope that the modding community turns out solid content so that you and others can see the AI in this game do more than just "stabbity stab stab".

well i remember morowind wen a folover got stuck in grafick as sone you exit mainroad/flat ground.

i dont knowe if they have fixt it but wen you get a folower by defalt wen do a quest you lose the old companion. and the gears you have given him/her bean deleted.


-well to be able to have more then 1+ dog companion, remember falout 2 wen you cude have up-to 6 folowers

-that the companion keep the gears wen you leav them at youre home

-and one anoying thing is that in combat they always sems to run in the line betven you and the mob you atack and blocking l.o.s. so you hit the ompanion insted

I think a simple command system would be the most useful.

And the commands would be:

- Weapons free (permission to engage aggressively no matter what with blades or blunts)
- Over watch (permission to engage ranged magic, but only if I am attacked or if they are attacked)
- Stand Down (unless specially attacked do no not use a weapon of ANY kind)


- Hold (meaning they will stay in place but will engage enemies if they come near and will follow if you move more than 30 ft away.)
- Wait (meaning meaning they will stay in place, can engage enemies if they come near, but will stay there for one in game day.)
- Low profile (meaning kneel down an as if in hold, game will then put an invisibility spell [not seen except to NPCs & enemies on companion] to that they just are out of the fight. The concept is like "hide" expect they don't have to move, you can just put them in low profile and do what needs to be done)

- Engage at Cross hairs (their choice of weapons)
- Engage with ranged weapons (their choice of magic or bow)
- Stealthfully engage at cross hairs (meaning they move as if in "Sneak" and they get a 1 minute invisibility effect on them to engage with a sneak kill if possible. This allows the lousy path finding and bumbling an NPC would do no to matter as much.)

- Go to Crosshairs (go to the spot I'm pointing)
- Go to Home (go back to where I can find you later)
- Breach and engage (go through that door and attack any enemies you see) [helpful for getting a companion out of one room and into the next with their weapon ready - a go ahead of me and engage command]

It is really that simple. No complex commands for every conceivable interaction. Just some basic states of readiness, some basic weapon choices, and some basic movement choices.

I would not even venture into what they wear or what they put on or other features. In addition, if this sounds like SOCOM 1 from a decade ago it is because that system was simple and worked. You might ask why the invisibility spells BS? Well, because that means Bethesda does not have to improve the NPC path finding or worry as much about what they wear or about of the game physics make walking without bumping [censored] on the ground. The invisibility spell is just the use of an in game system to grease the wheels so that your companions can even pull off a stealth kill or be helpful in a stealth situation.